I think it's worth the risk. I think I have a good shot at out-running/out-fighting him. If big muscles meant fighting prowess, no one would have ever heard of Roy Nelson, and Phil Baroni would be undefeated.

I think it's worth the risk. I think I have a good shot at out-running/out-fighting him. If big muscles meant fighting prowess, no one would have ever heard of Roy Nelson, and Phil Baroni would be undefeated.

Fighting prowess aside, I wouldn't rush to casually insult a 300 lb slab of muscle, being half that weight, and not that very tough. I save my scorn for those who beg for it, RC seems like a nice enough fella, who just loves the dudesweat and being huge (sans in the pants possibly).

Suspended UFC Heavyweight Alistair Overeem broke his silence two months into his suspension for elevated testosterone levels last night on UFC Tonight. Overeem was scheduled to fight for the UFC HW title against Junior dos Santos at UFC 146 but had to bow out of that fight to start serving his suspension.

Here's what he told UFC Tonight (transcribed by MMA Fighting):

"When I had the positive test result, I didn't know why that was and I didn't want to talk about something that I didn't know about," said Overeem, who was speaking via satellite from Davie, Fla. "By the time we researched it, I had just gotten out of this situation in front of the commission. To avoid, if we were going to do all the questions which come from the media, that's not going to solve the situation, especially if you didn't know where it comes from or what you're talking about.

"I didn't think that was the right thing to do. So we decided to do research, stay quiet, when we did have the research done we went in front of the commission and we explained our side of the story."

He also spoke about UFC president Dana White and explained his new independent drug testing schedule. You can read all that after the jump...

"I have not spoken to Dana personally," he said. "I mean, Dana is a busy man, he's got a company to run and fans to take care of. Basically, I respect Dana, I'm going to convince Dana through my actions I am a legit fighter and do the random tests. I'm very sure that this situation cannot happen again.

"What I want to show the world is that I am a clean fighter, I'll do these tests on my own. One test doesn't say anything. If I do these tests every 3-4 weeks, then you prove to everyone that you are clean, the medical staff is observing you taking the test, so there's no foul play involved. ... What I'm hoping to acheive is that I can prove to the world that I ama clean fighter. I'm doing it for myself as well as for the fans. For me, myself, my fans, for the commission, I am a clean fighter."

Here, Overeem statements a few weeks later:

(Titled on MMA Fighting as Alistair Overeem Talks PEDs, Dana White, and Why He Thinks JDS Is Scared of Him.)

UFC president Dana White sat down with ESPN's Todd Grisham before UFC 148 and did a very interesting interview. Obviously the pre-fight hype talk is all irrelevant now, but White discussed several other issues that we need to address here at Bloody Elbow in this interview, including:

How Dana would make Mayweather vs. Pacquiao happen
Fighter pay and how the UFC is protecting fighters by keeping fighter pay information private
How Dana compares to MLB commissioner Bud Selig
Testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) and why Dana thinks it should not be allowed in MMA.
The embed above is just the part about TRT. We've got a transcription of that part and the full interview after the jump.

Transcribed by Zach Arnold

(Begin of transcript.)

TODD GRISHAM: "If Dan Henderson wins his fight against Jon Jones, if Chael Sonnen wins on Saturday, two of your biggest faces, your champions, will be on Testosterone Replacement Therapy. How does that sit with you?"

DANA WHITE: "It's... it's... the bottom line is the way that this TRT works, it's absolutely 100% legal with the... let me explain one more thing."

TODD GRISHAM: "A lot of, the public thinks it's cheating."

DANA WHITE: "I know. We're regulated by the Government. We're really the only sport that's regulated by the Government and the Government allows these guys to do this TRT and basically over the next 10 years sports science keeps getting better and better and better and the way that TRT works is as we get older your testosterone level drops and this is to replace it. The problem with it is is you got guys that are going, ‘well, if this much is good, this much must be great.'

That's the problem and you will find guys that will cheat even with the stuff that's legal. So, that's what we're trying to... but you make a good point and Anderson Silva said it at the press conference the other day. Anderson Silva, the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world, has broke every record in the UFC and is the greatest fighter ever in Mixed Martial Arts. He's 38 years old, people don't realize that.

He's not 28, he's 38, and he's not doing Testosterone Replacement Therapy. This guy comes in 100% natural and he beats everybody. And something should be said for that. I don't disagree, you know, the guys who are using Testosterone Replacement Therapy [versus] a guy who isn't and this guy is still the greatest in the world. So, to me, the bottom line is you don't need that junk. If you don't abuse stuff younger in your career, you'll never need to use that junk."

TODD GRISHAM: "So, if it up to you, it would be illegal, if you were making the call?"

DANA WHITE: "Yeah." (End of transcript.)

One of the most clever, and most cynical, aspects of the Zuffa approach to the regulation of MMA is the way they run to government regulation as a way of exempting the promotion's management team from responsibility for things like controversial rule sets, bad judging decisions, drug testing of fighters and now the allowing of therapeutic use exemptions (TUE) for TRT.

I'm not saying that Dana could snap his fingers and get TRT banned from the sport, in fact, it may very well be true that he's got little to no influence on the key commissions (Nevada, New Jersey, California) that regulate the sport on this matter. Nonetheless, it's very convenient for Dana that he can distance himself from the very unpopular practice of granting certain fighters TUE's for TRT.

Obviously it's not "cheating" to use something the supervising commission approved for you to use. But it remains difficult for me to accept the number of people who are either already on replacement therapy or claiming that they've got low testosterone.

Currently we've got Griffin, Chael Sonnen, Dan Henderson, Frank Mir, Todd Duffee and Dennis Hallman on replacement therapy as well as guys like Ian McCall and Roy Nelson saying they have low testosterone but aren't on any therapy yet. Not to mention Alistair Overeem's own testosterone issues (which weren't TRT related, but still).

There's a real testosterone issue in MMA. Either the sport is causing significant changes to the way the body is able to produce standard hormones via damage sustained through concussions/weight cutting (and thus needs to be reevaluated) or doctors are extremely willing to prescribe the therapy.

From what I've been told and found looking online at articles and forums explaining the easiest ways to get a doctor to just put you on replacement therapy, I'm thinking it's the latter.

Until we have full out of competition testing under a program like VADA, I'm not exactly willing to quietly accept the NSAC blood tests as "good enough."

However, Marquardt might just be one of the most notorious and unabashed liars and cheaters in the sport, one that has been caught repeatedly, and one that over the course of his career has displayed some incredibly unsportsmanlike behavior.

(Not going to make a list: Do your own homework, please, and, even if you disagree, please don't insinuate that I haven't done mine.)